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Hunter-Reay proved to be a credible threat for the victory when he beat Will Power and Helio
Castroneves for the pole. The Penske drivers had swept every pole and all three races in IndyCar’s
previous visits to the Alabama road course.

Hunter-Reay then ran a steady race, and held strong in one intense fight for position with both
Penske drivers. Then he had to hold off Scott Dixon, who was second for the fourth straight
year.

“I was dragging my tail off trying to hold off Dixon,” Hunter-Reay said.

Castroneves was third to take over the IndyCar points lead, and Charlie Kimball, Dixon’s
teammate at Chip Ganassi Racing, was a career-best fourth. Power was fifth.

AJ Allmendinger ran seventh for most of his IndyCar debut but finished 19th after stalling the
car during his final pit stop. But he was praised repeatedly by team owner Roger Penske, even after
the mistake in the pits.

“Finish this and just learn, learn, learn. You are doing fine,” Penske radioed Allmendinger.

It was a huge turnaround for Hunter-Reay, whose previous best finish at Barber was 12th. He
opened the season with an 18th-place finish at St. Petersburg because of mechanical problems. But
he left with his 10th career victory, and put the No. 1 car into victory lane at an IndyCar race
for the first time since Sebastien Bourdais won at Mexico City in 2007.

It left team owner Michael Andretti beaming after two IndyCar wins to open the season, and
Carlos Munoz’s victory earlier yesterday in the Indy Lights race.

“It was great to get that win with Carlos this morning and for Ryan to come back, they did a
great job with strategy,” Andretti said. “Just a perfect weekend, when you start on the pole and
lead almost all the laps, it’s just how to do it.”

Four-time series champion Dario Franchitti went to pit lane 41 laps into the race with an
electrical issue after driving from the back of the field into the top 10. He wound up 25th and is
last in the standings.